HARTFORD — A state employee was attacked and sexually assaulted as she headed from her office to a Capitol Avenue parking lot Monday afternoon, and two Good Samaritans who heard the victim's screams chased down and held the suspect, police said.

The screams were so loud that they could be heard a block away, another state worker said Tuesday.

The alleged attacker, Allen Oakes, 26, of Hartford, was ordered held, with bail set at $750,000, at his arraignment Tuesday at Superior Court in Hartford. He was charged with first-degree sexual assault and second-degree breach of peace.

The attack occurred about 3:30 p.m. near 10 Clinton St., a narrow road that runs between Capitol Avenue and Elm Street next to several state office buildings and the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts.

Several Good Samaritans went to the woman's aid. Two chased her attacker across Bushnell Park and grabbed him near 100 Trumbull St., where police took him into custody, according to a police report.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the victim worked for the agency at 79 Elm St., which runs along the south side of Bushnell Park and intersects with Clinton Street.

The 24-year-old woman told Hartford police that she had left work and was walking on Clinton Street toward her car, which was in a state employee parking lot on Capitol Avenue. She said she was walking between the state lab at 10 Clinton St. and the First Presbyterian Church at 136 Capitol Ave. when she was attacked from behind.

She told police that the man pushed her to the ground and then sexually assaulted her, and that she elbowed her attacker and screamed with the hope of getting someone to help her, according to the police report. A short time later, the man got up and ran off toward nearby Bushnell Park, she told police.

Two people that the woman recognized from her office building chased after her attacker, she said, while others came to her help and called 911, according to the police report.

In an interview with detectives, Oakes admitted grabbing the woman, according to a police report.

Oakes, who is on parole and living in a halfway house on Collins Street, told police that he went to catch a bus about 2 p.m. Monday and, while waiting, smoked K2, a synthetic marijuana that is illegal in Connecticut, according to the police report. After smoking the K2, he told police, he decided not to get on the bus and instead to wander around downtown.

Oakes told officers that he sat on some steps near 10 Clinton St. and watched people walk by, according to the arrest report. About 10 minutes later, he said, a woman walked past him and he stood up and started to follow her, the report said.

"Oakes said once he started to follow her, he heard voices in his head telling him to grab her," according to the report. "Oakes said he then grabbed the female from behind and squeezed her [buttocks] and inner thigh."

He told police that the woman yelled at him and he immediately ran off, according to the report.

He said that he fell several times while running, then found himself "detained by a strange guy," according to the report. In his written statement to police, he made "apologetic statements to the victim regarding the incident," according to the report.

DEEP, in a news release, said the state Department of Administrative Services, which provides security for DEEP headquarters and state employee parking lots, is investigating the incident, and will make security personnel available to accompany employees to their vehicles upon request.

Mayor Pedro Segarra said he was shocked by the incident, but heartened that people went to the woman's aid.

"I want to commend the Good Samaritans that jumped in and helped capture the man," he said. "Their willingness to step in shows the strong sense of community we have in our city."

Oakes has several felony convictions for crimes such as burglary and larceny.

Arrest and booking photos are provided by law enforcement officials. Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted.

HARTFORD — Secretary of the State Denise Merrill has appointed Litchfield lawyer and longtime League of Women Voters of Connecticut leader Christine Horrigan to the position of election monitor for Hartford.

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